Valve hardware beta planned for the coming year, wearable computing "two to five" years out

Valve will unleash the products of their hardware ideas lab on lucky beta testers in the coming year, according to a report on Engadget . They've spoken to inventor Jeri Ellsworth about Valve's plans to "make Steam games more fun to play in your living room."

Ellsworth doesn't reveal any specific devices, but it's easy to imagine a controller being part of that package. Or a motion tracking turret that sits in your front room gently suggesting that your Steam stats aren't as high as they could be and occasionally indicating how "regrettable" it would be to see your forced entry into the beta extermination program.

It's no secret that Valve have been working on wearable computing, but that's still "two to five years" out. Ellsworth says that Valve have a production line in place for short runs, which should allow them to produce enough devices to send out to testers. There's no mention of exactly how testers will be selected yet, but Valve are documenting their experiments. Hopefully we'll get to see the results of those experiments soon.

Would you buy a Valve controller? What would you like to see them make?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom stopped being a productive human being when he realised that the beige box under his desk could play Alpha Centauri. After Deus Ex and Diablo 2 he realised he was cursed to play amazing PC games forever. He started writing about them for PC Gamer about six years ago, and is now UK web ed.